Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler of Roland, Oklahoma, a highly-decorated soldier and father of four, rushed into action when he heard sounds of gunfire coming from a prison in Iraq where dozens of ISIS-held hostage were being held on Thursday.

Those actions, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters on Friday, weren’t part of the original rescue mission plan, but were critical to its success.

“I am immensely proud of this young man,” Carter said adding that his thoughts and prayers go out to Wheeler’s family.

Earlier Friday, Defense officials confirmed to NBC News Wheeler, 39, as the American Delta Force commando killed in a rescue mission in Iraq on Thursday.

Awful news. The New York Times has a nice story on Master Sergeant Wheeler and his life, so go over and read more about this American hero. They also had a little bit about the raid itself:

A former Delta Force officer who had commanded Sergeant Wheeler in Iraq and had been briefed on the mission said that the Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, tried to blast a hole in the compound’s outer wall, but could not. Sergeant Wheeler and another American, part of a team of 10 to 20 Delta Force operators who were present, ran up to the wall, breached it with explosives, and were the first ones through the hole.

I am continually in awe of the caliber of soldier that America produces. These fighting men, who run toward gunfire coming right at their heads. Absolutely extraordinary.

Master Sergeant Wheeler earned a total of 11 Bronze Stars, four of them with the Valor device. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan 14 times. He was 39 years old. R.I.P.

As always, if anyone finds a donation site for the family, please let us know so we can post it up.

The Pentagon said today that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter made the call to send U.S. forces on the deadly hostage rescue mission under the “support role” to Kurdish forces in Operation Inherent Resolve.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the U.S. Special Forces operation to rescue hostages from an ISIS prison near Hawija, Iraq, was launched at the request of the Kurdistan regional government.

Carter, Cook said, “exercised his authority and approved this mission, and the White House’s national security team was notified of this.”

“Secretary Carter made this decision, knowing, again, the potential risk to U.S. forces. He did so because, again, of the larger fight against ISIL. A partner was asking for U.S. participation, and, in that regard, he felt it was the appropriate step to take, given the circumstances involved in this particular situation… 70 people have had their lives saved as a result of this operation.”

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said “under that architecture” of Obama’s anti-ISIS blueprint “consistent with the appropriate legal authorities” is “where the secretary of Defense would authorize operations of this type.”

NB: WH says POTUS did not sign off on #Iraq Spec Ops raid that left US solider dead, says it was Def. Sec. Carter's call

Let’s go over that again. Here, we have a last minute, HIGHLY dangerous rescue mission that could have gone horribly wrong. We have a president who basically based his entire campaign on ending the war in Iraq. So I would say that there is less than 0.00 percent chance that President Obama didn’t know about this and give the go-ahead. To believe that the decision lay solely with the SecDef is absurd.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Deputy Secretary General of Iraq’s Badr Organization Abdolkarim al-Ansari blasted the US-led Anti-ISIL Coalition’s poor performance in fighting the Takfiri terrorists, and said his country does not more want Washington’s help in the war against the militant group.

He, meantime, appreciated the role played by the quadrilateral coalition comprising Syria, Russia, Iran and Iraq against the ISIL, and said, “The Iraqis welcomes Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s request from Russia for direct intervention in the anti-ISIL fight and our country does not need the American troops.”

Hey, Al-Ansari? Rot in hell, you ungrateful piece of shit. No big deal, we only made your entire government possible. JERK.

It was August 15, 2012, when Jeremy Maddamma left Afghanistan on a stretcher. Maddamma, a U.S. Air Force pararescueman, was on a mission to rescue Afghan civilians after multiple suicide bombers hit Zaranj, a city on the Iranian border. He remembers the gunshot puncturing his left knee and falling to the ground. He remembers begging for pain meds during the flight back to Camp Bastion, getting them, and feeling no difference.

“How much longer?” Jeremy asked a teammate, knowing it was an hour flight.

“Twenty minutes,” he was told.

He remembers waking up after surgery and being told he was going to lose his leg. He remembers calling his wife, Nicole, and telling her the ski season was off.

Jeremy would spend the next two-and-a-half years trying to save his left leg before choosing to amputate it above the knee. He would place his faith in an ability to fuse his will to cutting-edge prosthetic technology ranging from high-grade composite form factors—think Oscar Pistorius—to microprocessor-enabled joint function à la Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. He would do so with the hope to one day return to duty as one of the first amputee Air Force pararescuemen.

He wanted to jump out of planes again, a bionic warrior saving lives in harm’s way.

Fantastic story by Combat Rescue Officer Matthew Komatsu for VICE magazine. We’ve stolen featured Komatsu’s work before, as he wrote a great firsthand account of the Camp Bastion attacks for the New York Times.

Here, he goes in depth about the efforts of Jeremy Maddamma and another amputee PJ, August O’Neill, and their struggle to adapt to the prosthetic limbs and make a reuturn to full active duty. Go read the whole thing. We here at SOFREP are pulling for both of them.

Washington (CNN)—Hillary Clinton avoided major damage to her presidential campaign during a nearly 11-hour congressional hearing Thursday dominated by Republican criticism of her response to the Benghazi attacks.

Bitter political undercurrents festered all day during a contentious showdown that turned into a political endurance test. After a day-long grilling on the details of the attack and how Clinton handled it, the former secretary of state was forced to defend her use of a private email account while in office from a flurry of late evening attacks by GOP lawmakers.

She also came under testy cross-examination over the extent to which she has taken responsibility for the deaths of the Americans in the September 11, 2012, attacks and her contact with U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, one of the victims, after sending him to the North African country.

“I came here because I said I would. And I’ve done everything I know to do, as have the people with whom I worked, to try to answer your questions. I cannot do any more than that,” Clinton said towards the end of the grueling day—before later breaking into a coughing fit and taking a throat lozenge to ease her failing voice.

What a pointless, incredible waste of time. The battle lines were clearly drawn up well in advance of this charade. Clinton could have admitted to secretly sending in the rebels to destroy the embassy, and the media still would have labeled her performance “brilliant.” The people who love Clinton would have still loved her, and the people who hated her would loathe her even more.

They at least got her to admit that she lied about that whole “A YouTube video caused this” nonsense. As soon as the attacks happened, Clinton was emailing both the Egyptian prime minister and her daughter, Chelsea, explaining how this was an organized terrorist attack, and NOT some spontaneous mob activity.

So it’s OK to tell the truth to the Egyptian guy, it’s OK to tell the truth to her daughter, but to the families who were seeking answers to why their sons were killed in Benghazi? She lies to their faces. And why? Well, if I had to venture a guess, it’s because her boss had an election coming up about six weeks later, and it wouldn’t do to be uttering certain phrases. Phrases that rhyme with “Shmerrorist Patack.”

In the end, none of it mattered. In my opinion, Hillary Clinton is completely unfit to be president of the United States. Her incompetence goes way beyond merely lying to the families of the Benghazi victims. And let’s not forget them, even as liberals everywhere mockingly use, “BENGHAZI!” as some sort of hilarious joke. Four Americans did DIE there, in a horrible way, you assholes. Show some goddamn respect.

As for Clinton? She was the one who urged Obama to get involved in Libya in the first place, with the end result being a disastrous failed state that has become a haven for anarchy and terrorism, not to mention the biggest refugee crisis in our lifetimes.

She was the one who repeatedly violated the very basics of information security when she kept her own outside email server, violations which would have gotten any other employee’s security clearance pulled and employment terminated.

She was the one who accepted donations from foreign governments for her slush fund known as “The Clinton Foundation,” all while she was supposed to be representing us as secretary of state. No conflict of interest there.

But thanks to her PATHETIC competitors in the Democratic primary, she’s back on top. So she’s feeling good about her chances again:

The performance, coming one day after Vice President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek the presidency and a week after a strong showing at the Democratic debate, could solidify Clinton’s standing as the prohibitive favorite to win her party’s presidential nomination.

The morning after the hearing, Clinton HQ was “ecstatic,” according to one source, a Clinton campaign aide who added, “that was a president sitting there.”

Of course they were ecstatic. We didn’t get a chance to get into it last week, but between this waste of time, and especially after that craptastic spectacle of a debate, she knew she had nothing to fear from the raving lunatic Bernie Sanders.

Look, Sanders is a joke. Obviously, he doesn’t really have any interest in winning. The issue that he could have beaten her over the head with from now until the primary was her political corruption. And what does he do? He takes the issue completely off the table. In the end, he was too much of a wimp to go after her, which is what he needed to do to have a shot in hell.

Riddle me this, Bernie fans. Do you wonder why the Clinton team was so upbeat after that debate? Because they realized immediately that Sanders was WEAK. He is too befuddled to realize that he has to DEFEAT Clinton if he wants to get the nomination. So Sanders is done. Sure, he’ll make a few more speeches, but it’s over. And he knows it.

And the best part of all? Clinton was greeted as a HERO the next day at the Democratic National Committee Women’s Leadership Forum:

Hillary Clinton was greeted like a returning war hero at a Democratic National Committee (DNC) forum the morning after a long day of Republican interrogation at a hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

“As some of you may know, I had a pretty long day yesterday,” Clinton told a whistling, cheering audience of several hundred Democratic women who were on their feet to greet her arrival at the DNC’s Women’s Leadership Forum on Friday morning.

That’s great. Nothing matters anymore. Look, I’m not telling you who to vote for. I told you before, by all means, vote liberal if you want to. Vote for Bernie “The Music’s Too Loud” Sanders. Vote for embalmed Vladimir Lenin. But if you vote for this Clinton ROBOT, you are voting for an incompetent, lying, UNFIT candidate.

Look, I’m going to be real with you guys. I’ve had a few drinks as I’m writing this. I can’t deal with it. I apologize in advance for this week’s column.

U.S. Army veteran noticed a curious thing at a recent convocation event at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. A graying man was wearing military dress uniform and badges that indicate what seemed like an impossible accumulation of achievements and commendations.

The man identified himself as Mark Joston, the Friendly Atheist reports. Joston had insignia on his uniform identifying him as a Navy SEAL with four purple hearts, an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran, and rear admiral for the CIA’s special ops.

Turns out, those unbelievable achievements were just that — unbelievable.

The man was none of those things, nor was his name Mark Joston. He was Pastor George Hunley of Louisa, Virginia, who earlier this year was arrested for falsely reporting to police he was robbed and shot by a black man.

The German government is reportedly planning to use military transport aircraft to speed up the deportation of tens of thousands of economic migrants.

With public opposition to her refugee policy rising, Angela Merkel is under pressure to do more to deter economic migrants with no genuine claim to asylum.

The country is struggling to cope with an expected 800,000 asylum-seekers this year.

But newly released official figures show that 193,500 are still in the country despite having their applications for asylum rejected.

“Obviously, the usage of the Transall is not ruled out. But only in the event that all civilian transport capacities are exhausted and if it does not affect the German army’s priority missions, then could such troop carriers be (an option),” Ursula von der Leyen, Defence Minister, said Wednesday.

Ursula, let me help you out here. The Army’s “priority missions?” THIS IS THE PRIORITY MISSION. Let’s just take a quick scan of some of the stories coming out of Germany, helpfully translated and compiled by the Gatestone Institute. You’ll notice you didn’t hear about a single one of these in the English language media, which has been a relentless cheerleader for the displacement of Germans.

In Berlin, 20 asylum seekers sued the State Agency for Health and Social Welfare (Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales, Lageso) in an effort to force local authorities to speed up their welfare payments.

In the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, more than 400 migrants, mostly from Africa, occupied an abandoned school because they no longer wanted to live in tents in a nearby square.”We are currently negotiating with local authorities about how to proceed,” a Sudanese migrant named Mohammed said. “We will not leave until our demands [amending German asylum laws so they can remain in the country] are met.”

Just hours after arriving in Fuldatal, 40 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria complained about conditions at a refugee shelter there and demanded that they be given their own homes... The regional refugee coordinator, Hans-Joachim Ulrich, said that migrants are coming to Germany with unrealistic expectations.

In Walldorf, a town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, a group of migrants demanded that local authorities immediately provide them with private apartments because they were tired of living in a refugee shelter with 200 other asylum seekers. The leader of the group, a 46-year-old refugee from Syria, said he expected more from Germany.

In Bavaria, the Munich Chamber of Trade (Handwerkskammer München und Oberbayern) reported that 70% of migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria who have been offered apprenticeships fail to complete them. According to the director of the chamber, Lothar Semper, many young migrants believe apprenticeships are beneath them.

Many, many more examples can be found at the link. It is absolutely extraordinary to watch a country willingly self-immolate before our very eyes.

Side note: So, one of the things I’ve been noticing? Every time the mainstream press does a story on this, they always make sure some little kids are in the pictures they take. The reality looks a lot more like this:

Look at that tidal wave of people. It’s made up completely of young, able-bodied men. Now multiply that by thousands.

We’ve talked before about my good friends over at the Pipe Hitter’s Union apparel company. I remember, mostly because you female SOFREP readers went all googly-eyed over the barrel-chested freedom-fighting cover boys they’ve used. They’re back now, with a calendar to inspire not only you, but the female shooters in your circle. I’ll let them explain:

Fantastic idea, especially with the huge amount of women who are active in the sport shooting/hunting/firearms industry. The guys over at Pipe Hitter’s sent me a few sample pictures, so I figured I’d pass them on. The best one is obviously Brittany here, since she’s an active duty airman. (Ok, I’m biased.)

Head over to Pipe Hitter’s and pick up your copy before they run out. And, as always, if any of you vets out there want to pimp your business to us, contact me anytime. I mean, no big deal: Only thousands and thousands of people read this every week.

Brittany Dawn Killgore’s text pinged her friend’s phone at 7:50 p.m. It was April 13, 2012, but the one-word text didn’t seem like a Friday the 13th prank. Not coming from Killgore, the pretty San Diego-based wife of a Marine serving in Afghanistan. And not now, just three days after she had filed for divorce…

…Four days later, Killgore’s naked body was found near Lake Skinner 70 miles north of San Diego. Her neck showed signs of strangulation. Her wrists and ankles appeared as if they had been bound. She had several small burn marks from an electronic stun device. And one of her legs had been cut after death, as if her killers had tried to dismember her corpse.

If the brutal crime shocked San Diego, its investigation shook the city even further. Police arrested a Marine staff sergeant from nearby Camp Pendleton base. Then they arrested two women, one of them pregnant, for allegedly assisting in the murder.

When the case finally went to court last month, the crime grew darker still. Prosecutors laid out in excruciating detail how Killgore had been murdered as part of a sadomasochistic sex kidnapping. Marine Louis Ray Perez had tricked her into hanging out with him, then he, Dorothy Grace Maraglino and Jessica Lynn Lopez kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed Killgore to satisfy their fetishes, prosecutors claimed.

This is an insane case. Basically, these three had some sick sex dungeon thing going, and they wanted to get Brittany Kilgore into their little game. She ends up being imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by these three animals. And the worst part?

On Wednesday, almost three and a half years after Killgore’s death, all three suspects were convicted of murder, kidnapping, torture, and attempted sexual battery by restraint.

THREE AND A HALF YEARS. What the hell is wrong with the American justice system? Why are these cases, which should be pretty open and shut, taking so freaking long? It’s absurd.

The Navy is poised to promote the admiral in charge of its elite SEAL teams and other commando units even though Pentagon investigators determined that he illegally retaliated against staff members who he mistakenly suspected were whistleblowers.

Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey was investigated five times by the Defense Department’s inspector general after subordinates complained that he had wrongly fired, demoted or punished them during a vengeful but fruitless hunt for the person who had anonymously reported him for a minor travel-policy infraction, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

OK, so I have some sympathy here. The original complaint was that Losey had improperly obtained a government plane ticket for his adult daughter. The case was investigated, and it turned out that Losey had indeed paid for the plane ticket himself. But he was so pissed off about someone ratting on him, it seems he went a little apeshit and vowed to find out who did it, which you CANNOT do. The worst part is the amount of time and effort that went into the case:

After conducting separate, years-long investigations that involved more than 100 witnesses and 300,000 pages of e-mails, the inspector general upheld complaints from three of the five staff members. In each of those cases, it recommended that the Navy take action against Losey for violating whistleblower-protection laws, the documents show.

Oooof. That’s THOUSANDS of man hours that your tax money is paying for. Look, I get it, but damn. What a waste. That being said, there’s no way he should have been promoted if they proved that he deliberately went after whistleblowers. If individuals become fearful of coming forward, the whole thing is pointless.

The Navy, however, dismissed the findings this month and decided not to discipline Losey, a preeminent figure in the military’s secretive Special Operations forces who once commanded SEAL Team 6, the clandestine unit known for killing terrorist targets such as Osama bin Laden. He now leads the Naval Special Warfare Command and has served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Panama, Bosnia, Somalia and other conflict zones.

An alleged American child molester on the run from the FBI has been found leading a double life in the Hampshire countryside.

Roger Alan Giese, 40, fled the U.S. eight years ago just as he was about to stand trial over abuse allegations involving a 13-year-old boy.

The case put together by the Orange County District Attorney’s office reads: “During the several months of grooming ‘John Doe’, Giese is accused of pretending to be a member of an elite military unit, “Delta Force,” and molesting John Doe under the pretense that the child could earn a place in the elite military unit by providing semen, urine, blood, and stool samples to Giese.”

Get this: This sick bastard might not even be extradited back to the United States for this. Mainly because California, in a rare dally with sanity, passed a special law in 1995 letting us hang on to “sexually violent predators” (SVPs) indefinitely.

The problem is that the sickos in the European Union look at such involuntary confinements as a “human-rights violation,” even when there is overwhelming evidence of guilt. So for now, they’re refusing to extradite him.

I know a lot of you junior high and high school kids think that Delta Force, SEAL Team 6, the Ranger Regiment, the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and all the rest of them are all pretty badass. And you’re right! But, take it as gospel from your affable uncle BK: They have no interest in your bodily fluids. If such a suggestion is ever made to you, please kick them in the nuts and call the police.

An Oregon man was arrested Thursday after he broke into a Portland home, stripped naked, crawled into bed with the couple who live there and kissed the man — who turned out to have a gun — police said.

Richard Dean Defeudis, 32, was held on $310,000 bail in the Multnomah County Jail pending arraignment Friday on charges of first- and second-degree burglary, first-degree sex abuse and unlawful use of a weapon.

An incident report says Defeudis broke into the home about 3:40 a.m. (6:40 a.m. ET) Thursday and began gathering items of value.

He then removed all of his clothes and climbed into bed with the unidentified man and woman who live there — and for some reason kissed the man, it says.

The man woke up to find the burglar sitting on top of him, holding a knife, police said. When the man pulled a gun, the burglar hurriedly put on his pants and fled — chased by the now fully awake man, who fired three shots but missed, according to the report.

Defeudis, who has an extensive arrest record in Oregon and California, was arrested in a vacant house nearby and was treated at a hospital for possible drug-related symptoms, police said.

Never, ever, EVER let them take your guns, America. Remember to hit me up over at my Twitter @BKactual.

We thought this story would be interesting for you, for full access to premium original stories written by our all veteran journalists subscribe here .